Acronym, "RP" neuron
yamaoka kageyuki bun 6631
dros at HAKUSRV.TOYO.AC.JP
Thu Oct 24 02:23:03 EST 1996
Several weeks ago I posted a question about the origin of an agronym "RP"
I received many e-mails, and knew many person wished to share the info about
this matter. So info's received must be open to all.
In conclusion, the origin of "RP" neurons is the "raw prawn" neuron.
One of the "christeners", or Dr. Goodman wrote:
>yes, RP means raw prawn. I suppose you could say it doesn't really mean
>much of anything, but how better to name a neuron. The phrase was the idea
>of Mike Bate when he was visiting me at Stanford and we were collaborating.
>We first described the neuron in the moth embryo, where RP1 was very large
>and had a delicate appearance, and somehow very very late one night, in a
>dark microscope room, it became named raw prawn. We actually called it RP
>for about 10 years, and only recently finally admitted what RP stands for.
>I don't think you'll find any publication that defines this acronym.
Dr. Shaoyu Wang's opinion was of interesting one. He wrote:
>After talking with my colleagues here I come up following piece of info.:
>You might refer to the paper by Kendal Broadie et al (1993, Development
>supplement 227-238). Anthers wrote in this paper " Finding memorable names
>for identified neurons is not always easy, and in this instance the acronym
>RP, picked late one night over a decade ago by M.B. (Michael Bate) and
>C.S.G (C. Goodman), stands for "raw prawn", an Australian phrase aptly
>describing the delicate and innocent appearance of two cells--RP1 and
>RP2--as they were first discovered in the embryo of the moth Manduca sexta
>and then by homology in thr grasshopper and fruitfly (Thomas et al, 1984).
>The meaning of the "raw prawn" can be appreciated in the example: don't
>come the "raw prawn" with me. It means that don't try to fool me.
Now, we can use this agronym contentedly as a nickname of this type of neurons.
I appreciate to all who kindly wrote me replies.
******* Kageyuki Yamaoka, e-mail:dros at hakusrv.toyo.ac.jp *******
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